Plasmoid formation in global GRMHD simulations and AGN flares

Understand

One of the main dissipation processes acting on all scales in relativistic jets is thought to be governed by magnetic reconnection.

• Such dissipation processes have been studied in idealized environments, such as reconnection layers, which evolve in merging islands and lead to the production of plasmoids, ultimately resulting in efficient particle acceleration.
• In accretion flows onto black holes, reconnection layers can be developed and destroyed rapidly during the turbulent evolution of the flow.
• We present a series of two-dimensional general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of tori accreting onto rotating black holes focusing our attention on the formation and evolution of current sheets.